nice people...

Friday, Jan. 21, 2005

Considering that I am an outspoken person and pull no punches but generally I am a nice person I decided to be nice to the person I love the absolute most as I should, so I bought myself these…
Congrats to me for another successful week of school. I love you me! I’m proud of you me! You rock me!

Then I got this book in the mail…
…from the coolest Kristy I’ve ever internet met! I take it I received this from her because of my participation in her photo caption contest So far this book totally appears to be something I will love and something I myself would buy. Thanks so much Kristy! Your kids smiling faces make me smile daily….that was really gift enough. That and my new ability to say to Rick every single day practically when I see someone painting the outside of the apartment building we live in or a guy painting ANYTHING for that matter… “HEYYYY that is not MIKE!” Today I saw five guys painting all clad in white…and guess what?? Five….and still no MIKE! :-) Oh and I can’t forget explaining to him where the book came from by saying “ya know that picture of all those beautiful kids tacked to my memo board near my newly redesigned desk…yes those are allllllllll of her kids and she still found time to do something nice for someone else!! To which he said, “ALLL of those kids are hers?” I said, “hmmm do I hear an Echo?” ahhh but he didn’t get it and that’s ok. You do!

Furthermore, isn’t it nice when you read someone’s blog and you “think” they are a nice person and then you contact them and they reply with a friendly hello and you sigh with relief to realize they ARE INDEED a nice person?? Isn’t that just grand? Yup…I think so too.

I’ve have not been reading every single diary every single day like I once did. I still allow myself to check out daily about 5 blogs that I just can’t break myself of. Blogs that make my day…they have remained. I’m totally addicted and it’s wrongly timed, but there’s a reason I’m the biggest fan of his! He’s the real deal. Ever run into someone who’s had success in their field and then find out that they are really a jerk. They dismiss you as if they can’t be bothered. Ever go to a book signing where the author is looking at his or her watch and scanning the crowd like “oh hell get me out of here, this sucks!” ? But…but we the reader have invested hours of our good time reading their works of fictional art? I have. It sucks. Before I had any interaction with Mr. Goldberg, who I do consider to be a friend of sorts, I simply bought his book on a whim, read it entirely on a Sunday. Then a few weeks later read it again, because it was and is a movie for the mind. It was a pleasant thing to learn that the guy for whom I gave up my two Sunday’s was a nice guy. A guy that is witty and friendly and sure he’s holed up in his house somewhere fondling a keyboard and craving Steak ‘n Shake and probably not shaving for days for my eventual entertainment via my reading eye time, and sure he’s probably annoying in some aspect, as I’m sure he leaves crumbs in the keyboard or he takes off his smelly socks under his desk….probably occasionally leaves the toilet seat up (hey I don’t have to visit to make an educated guess on that one!! Only MIKE wouldn’t do that!!!) but...c’mon we’re all human and he’s not God, he’s Tod. So no I don’t idolize the guy, I just really dig his writing style, his brutal honesty when asked a direct question, and furthermore, he’s nice. Nice…yes a simple thing, but then again…is it really?

I’ve learned via my meeting with Po Bronson that writers are simply people lucky enough to work at what they most obviously have to love. They spend hours upon hours ALONE. Yes ALONE is not always easy. Furthermore, they are self directed people. There’s no boss there daily saying ‘hey where’s your next book?” Some of them are appreciative that they have fans and realize being kind just works far better than being a dick. Other’s…well Ms. Atwood and her new e-signing device…she sucks for that one thing. She has success and she’s basically saying she can’t be bothered to pick up a pen and look anyone directly in the eye. Sure if she was legless it would be more understandable, and sure this might reach the masses, but fuck that. I want an author to brush off the dust, come out and look at me. I wish more of them would come to the mecca of Tampa, FL more damn often. Don’t they realize how many books are on our beaches every summer???? This really ticks me off. Sure I’ve been promptly told that Ms. Atwood is a great writer and I’m the first to admit I’ve never read any of her damn books, even though I used to own one or two… So I can’t say her writing sucks, and I’d never lie about such a sacred thing. She’s probably a very well accomplished writer…but this…this e sign thing….she’s a bitch too. (Yes…I might have wrote all of this publicly say that…but then again I won’t have to sign it and/or admit to it as I myself am not expecting anyone to pay to read this!)

I can honestly say that one of the biggest thrills in my life was getting an email from Tod….that thrill never has ceased and of course I do realize he’s just a regular Joe that has a car to keep up, a wife to keep happy, and a house to maintain, ….shit just like the rest of us. (no nooooooo I did NOT say his wife was shit….trust me..I DIDN’T!!! I think if I asked his wife for her autograph she’d happily oblige and she’s never met me…but I just have this feeling…) But damn it, I liked his book and he found me and said, “hey thanks for what you said!” And damn isn’t that just a nice thing? There’s a reason that bumper sticker “Mean People Suck” was so popular. Yah so I’m one person that’s read Tod’s books. Why does it matter that a writer is nice to one person? It’s like that old school Breck commercial about “and she told two people and she told two people…” where the screen keeps splitting up into more and more squares of people. I can’t say that anyone else has actually gone out and bought a Goldberg work of art because of my blathering but I can guarantee you that Po Bronson owns it, that the local bookstores are wondering why the Goldberg’s end up on the front cap weekly, I know my friends now own it and I’ve practically forced them to read it…and I’m sure someone here will go read his blog today. Why? Because Tod’s a great writer and oh yah….he’s a NICE pop tart eating normal kinda guy.

So…in other nice news, we (as in me and the man) will be moving very soon and I have 525 books. How to pack….gah. He does NOT complain about my book collection and for that I love you. He has said that it’s the only thing I have to move. (across one breezeway and down one steep incline of steps and god knows where to after that…) So, I’m in a conundrum as to how best to do this. I have done it in the past. I dumped a ton of em into the back of my truck twice in the past few years. You do not know BOOK love and the heights to which one will go until you have moved a collection of this magnitude more than a half a dozen times in five years. I can safely say that if I won the lottery the very first thought I would have is “Kristy Library from Hell” and be whooping it up like a madwoman.

Just because I have so many books that it causes me nightmares thinking about how to move them, does NOT mean I don’t NEED more. It also doesn’t mean that once I’ve read something I can or will dispose of it. It also does not mean I won’t have room for Tod’s new story collection in the fall. (pimping intended!)

I buy my son books every Christmas. This year it was

Imagine if it were possible to bring the characters from a book to life! Imagine!
Never forget that all things are possible if you can only Imagine.

I love you
Mom
and

I write something in all of them…I hope someday he still has them…the idea of that is nice… Thank God Mom's don't e-sign.

Be nice to someone....give them a book!
-PoeticaL

P.S. Chloe'ness has definitely had her bad moments. Sometimes she barks way too much to inform me that the mailman has arrived with a package. One time she even stole my Wendy’s 99 cent bacon cheeseburger when I dumbly got up to get a glass of water. Sometimes she steals too many covers for such a little dog. Sometimes I suspect that she even sneaks into my closet and pees on my shoes. My shoes cannot smell that bad only once in awhile can they??? But…save for that ONE time after which we had a looong talk…she doesn’t FUCK with my books. And I swear she can smile... Nice doggie nice… you can stay.